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IndustryArena Forum > MetalWorking Machines > Tormach Personal CNC Mill > Pre-Hard Stainless & HSM Advisor Test
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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Nov 2005
    Posts
    157

    Pre-Hard Stainless & HSM Advisor Test

    Did a test cut on the Tormach today using feeds & speeds from the latest version of the excellent HSM advisor.
    To make it interesting, I did the cut using some 1.2085 pre-hard Stainless Steel as I have plenty of stock of it and have a job in mind for this, and wanted to see how it cut on the Tormach.
    The material is like a stainless P20, at 16% Chrome/1% Nickel & 0.5% Sulphur (which makes it slightly free-er machining) and is hardened to around 33-35 Rockwell C, so I used the HSM advisor guidelines for machining P20 rather than Stainless. Cutter was a 10mm 4-flute Carbide TiAlN coated EM.

    So...... ticking the HSM/Chip thinning option I got a speed of 5120 and feed of 2214mm/minute( 87 IPM). I used a DOC of 10mm and WOC of 0.5mm/0.020" - and turned off the flood cooling to machine it completely dry. The finish pass on the 1st level was 15mm DOC and 0.5mm WOC and slightly lower speeds/feeds.

    Loaded up a 40mm x 63mm block , pressed the start button, and it went from this....





    ...to this!





    Very impressed. Total cut time around 12 minutes. The spindle load meter went into the Yellow zone on some of the 10MM DOC corners, but for the rest it was firmly in the green. And when it was finished I could easily hold both the part and the cutter, which were both 'warm' rather than 'hot'. Lots of lovely golden coloured thin chips though.
    Could do with an air blast to clear the chips when cutting the pockets as the finish suffered slightly because of this, but will sort that out, and had a slight programming anomaly which produced a weird cut on the very top surface.

    But overall I'm quite pleased with that. I wish I had a video camera so I could show it in action.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jan 2013
    Posts
    263
    Looks very nice. What brand cutter? What CAM?

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Nov 2005
    Posts
    157
    Cutter was nothing special, just a Hertel from Msc/J&L that I bought a few of on one of their discount offers. CAM was Sprutcam 7, waterline roughing with trochoids switched on.
    Cutter teeth were unmarked after this too, not a trace of wear on them.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Jan 2012
    Posts
    469
    Nice! It was really an eye opener when I started using HSM Advisor. My natural instincts were always to slow things way down, which only caused more trouble. I haven't experimented with stainless yet, but that looks pretty good to me!

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Sep 2012
    Posts
    1543
    I'm loving HSM Advisor for Titanium that's for sure!

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Sep 2012
    Posts
    255
    Oh Peter,
    Thanks for the test and also thank you for telling us about it!

    HSM technicues are a real life saver when it comes to machining hard and difficult to machine metalls.
    To tell you guys a little trick i do all my HSM toolpaths at 150% feed override. Which amounts to "heavy roughing".
    Same with many other tool types.
    I do drilling and at 150% feedrate as well on all meterials but pre-hardened tool steels. (Unless i get a torque warning)

    100% is designed to just work and get you through the job.

    Btw based on your input i will also add that stainless you were cutting to the material library.
    http://zero-divide.net
    FSWizard:Advanced Feeds and Speeds Calculator

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